When you're the king of six-man football in Texas, everybody's trying to knock you off the mountaintop, and that's the case with two-time defending Division II state champion Richland Springs.

The top-ranked Coyotes are two wins from a third straight state championship, and they've won 43 straight games heading into Saturday's semifinal showdown against Strawn in Hico.

Richland Springs is tied for the sixth-longest winning streak in Texas schoolboy history. With two more wins, the Coyotes will move past Cuero (1973-75) for the fifth-longest streak.

The Coyotes (13-0) have won five of the past eight state championships, and they're tied with Fort Hancock for the most six-man titles in state history.

Ironically, the last loss for Richland Springs was a 45-point mercy rule setback (70-22) against Strawn in the 2009 state quarterfinals. The Greyhounds went on to lose to Garden City 122-88 in the state championship that year.

Richland Springs' Gunner Mann was on the junior varsity that season, but he witnessed the heartbreak firsthand.

"I remember sitting in the locker room after the game and everybody was crying," he said. "That's not going to happen this year. We're going to take it to them."

Richland Springs head coach Jerry Burkhart knows the Coyotes are chasing history, but he's focused on the more immediate goal of facing Strawn (12-1).

"In the back of your mind, you know that that's a possibility," Burkhart said. "We've made the mistake before of looking ahead, and we never look ahead. We're focusing on Strawn. We're not worried about records."

And Burkhart says the Greyhounds are a formidable opponent.

"I think they're very well coached," Burkhart said. "We've played them in the past, and coach (Dewaine) Lee does a great job with them. A lot of people were counting them out early, and you can't ever count Strawn out. They want to get (to the state title game) just as bad as we do."

Burkhart says it will come down to fundamentals on Saturday.

"It always boils down to blocking and tackling," Burkhart said. "We've got to be aggressive on defense. We can't be passive. We've got to come after them, and we've got to wrap up a little better than we did last week. Offensively, we've got to execute and not have turnovers."

The Coyotes won their first 11 games by the mercy rule this season, but they've had to go the full four quarters the past two weeks in wins over second-ranked Jonesboro (64-48) and Milford (78-42).

Unlike most of their opponents, the Coyotes have only 12 players on their varsity roster, so there's not much room for injuries.

"We don't have many kids on the sidelines, but we make our practices tougher than our games," Burkhart said. "We want our kids to be prepared for five or six quarters is what we tell them. What's great about these kids here is all of them step up and they all play hard, and that's a blessing."

Being in great shape is something that usually seems to be in Richland Springs' favor.

"We always are more conditioned than the other team, and we always try to come out on top," Thomas Fowler said.

Richland Springs senior spread back Chance Bush can light up a scoreboard like a pinball machine. He's the latest in a long line of Coyote spread backs who have put Richland Springs on the six-man map, including Jared Hicks, Tyler Etheridge, Haustin Burkhart and Denim Reeves.

"He's a very coachable kid," coach Burkhart said of Bush. "He comes in and he works hard. I know he's following in Denim's footsteps, but we don't really look at it as following footsteps. We don't want to compare him to anybody, because every year our kids are different."

And despite all he has accomplished this year, Bush has remained modest.

"I don't think I'm ever going to be as good as them because they're pretty good athletes," Bush said of his predecessors. "It feels pretty good being one of the spread backs over here at Richland Springs."

Freshman Bryan Salinas has made a major impact for the Coyotes this year and says the upperclassmen have taken him under their wing.

"I've learned a lot from them," Salinas said. "They've taught me how to step it up and do what I have to do on offense and defense and make my tackles and everything."

Just like any other week, the Coyotes will have a bull's-eye on their chest Saturday against the Greyhounds, but that's the way it goes when you're the two-time defending state champion.

"Everybody's trying to beat us, but all these coaches push us harder and harder to try to win," Ty Mann said.